Dr. Howard Fuller Launches New Book and Website

MILWAUKEE, WI - Longtime education activist Dr. Howard Fuller launched a new website Aug. 18 to serve as a one-stop destination for information in anticipation of his forthcoming memoir.

The book, No Struggle No Progress: A Warrior's Life from Black Power to Education Reform, is scheduled for publication on Sept. 9.

The website, www.howardfuller.org, built by Phone2Action, Inc. contains dozens of photos from throughout Fuller's life, as well as video footage of many of his speeches and television interviews over the decades. It includes rare footage from the 1972 African Liberation Day, a Fuller-organized event that drew an estimated 30,000 people to the nation's Capital to support African nations fighting for their independence.

"Soon after I began talking about writing my book, I envisioned this website," Fuller said. "I wanted a site that would be like a live companion to the book, a site where readers could go to hear and see the sights and sounds of a different era, a site that would make stories told in the book come alive."

Fuller is a Distinguished Professor of Education at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he also is Founder/Director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning. The Institute's mission is to support exemplary education options that transform learning for children, while empowering families, particularly low-income families, to choose the best options for their children.

He is a Co-Founder and Board Chair of the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO).

Fuller's journey, chronicled in the book and on the website, began in the 1960s and 70s, when he worked as a community organizer for anti-poverty organizations in North Carolina, founded Malcolm X Liberation University and became a powerful voice for change in a frustrated generation of young Black men and women demanding "Black Power."

Fuller later returned to his hometown of Milwaukee, earned a doctorate, and served as Superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools from 1991 to 1995. Since that time, he has become one of the nation's leading proponents of parent choice, a range of educational options that include charter schools and publicly-financed vouchers that enable poor children to attend private and parochial schools.

Marquette University Press is the publisher of Fuller's memoir, co-written with Lisa Frazier Page, a New York Times best-selling author and former reporter and assignment editor at The Washington Post. Fuller is in high demand as a speaker, and the website will keep visitors updated on his speaking schedule, as well as enable them to contact him.

However, Fuller said he is most excited about the site's potential to attract young people.

"I've spent so much of my life working with young people that it was important to me to find ways to draw them to this project. Through the use of photography, audio, and video, I hope this website does that!"